The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1887-11-20
MORALS OF THE STAGE.
A Few Facts for Stage-Struck
Women.
HARDsHIPS AND PRIVATIONS.
Price of a Woman's Success as an
Actress-Virtue Has No Chance
Whatever.

I'VE" AOhhi ECPbOLnDSI --lCpSCldl CO1
respondence of the Omaha Herald IA
group of players stood on the platform
OF the railroad station at Cincinnati one
day when was travelling that way.
They were sorry looking lot. The
girls were huddled together, chatting in
low voices and drawing their wraps
closely around them. The weather was
bitterly cold. Many of the girls were
thinly clad. 1t was 6'clock in the
morning. While 1 stood looking at the
bakers dozen of shIvering young
women the comedian of the company,
who is now a famous man, came up,
and, looking hard at me, put out his
hand:
81 scarcely knew you under ali those
coats" he said, genialIy. Are you
travelling west2'
II am. Is this the company you
played with in New York;"
THE same. The ladies are apt 10
look bit rocky in the morning, you
knOw-lare hours, 6 O'Clock breakfast,
badly heated rooms, and all that. They
DO look pale, don't they?'
"Most pathetic looking group 1 ever
saw"
That's because most of them are
good" said the comedian, succinctly
aud dryly. when they have relaxed
their morals they'll be better cared for
and have pleasanter times. 1t is our
first week out snd really aIi the girls
are new to the business. Many of them
are highly respectable, but they will all
go the same way of their predecessors.
1t is inevitable. The conditions are
such that they cannot avoid it."
Iglanced at him sharply. At first l
thought he was guying, but it was
evident the man was thoroughly in
earnest. His mobile face WIS as gIum
girls sympathetically.
When that discussion was going on
last winter in the New York papers
about the morality IF the STAGE" he
continued. II thought that, if some of
the members of the symposium of news
paper writers who discussed the cues
ton at such length could travel for few
weeks with oar burlesQue or light opera
companies, thev woul6. find out how far
wrong they were in upnoldiDg stage life
as a calling in which any woman could
be respectable if she choose. / have
been in this business eight wears now,
sad always in travelling companies. The
conditions are such that it IS just as i'm
possible for woman of any attractive
qualities 10 remain decent on toe stage
as it is for man to voluntarily go with
out food for two or three DAYS every
week of his life. The very instant q
girl is"
Here ne stopped and put bis hand on
my arm and ssid:
Watch this little tabIeau." He drew
me hall aside. a carriage rolled up to
the station, the door was yanked open,
and the manager of the company. a
portly, red-nosed and habby man.
stepped out. He was smoking a cigar
pleasantly. He put his hand back in
the coach and helped young woman
70 the ground. She was clad in seal
skin from her neck to her heels, well
gIoved, and her chubby face had a
healthy color. She had . little poodle
in her arms, and after giving it an
ecstatic hug she passed it over to her |
maid, who followed her ont of the car
rage. The manager paid the cabman, |
smiled amicably upon his companion, |
and they staggered toward thu train, |
with the maid walking amiably behind |
them. The manager nodded half surlily |
10 the women of the chorus who stood |
there, and the girl gave them q bright |
little nod. Most of them bowed in re-
turn In restrained and far from cordial
The chunky young woman
was assisted into q parlor car, where
she had compartment to herself. They
began TO lay the table for breakfast be-
fore The train started from the station.
the chorus girls stood in the cold and
gaZed in at the iu1uries and warmed in.
terror of the Car. Presently one of the
agents came along and huddled them
ali back TO the rear of the train, while
they x ere bundled into q ricketv.
chilled and iIl-smelling car, with rat
ling windows and no other warmth ex-
,ept that impaired by a queer and far
rom effective stove at one end Here
hey disposed themselves amid their :
miserable and dismal surroundings as
,est they could for an eieht.hour Jour (
ley on one of the worst days of the I
eason. II
THAT tells the Story" said the
comedian shortly, nodding his head first
oward the rear car and then toward {
he window where the plump young
Eoman was at breakfast. THE Girl /
7ho came in with the manager was one t
f The chorus when we left New York. l
Ter salary, like that OF the other girls. {
Tas S14 week. We had not been out s
day before she saw the inevitable. I
ook the plunge and there Was the whole |
DRY. She lives at the very best hotels. q
as comfortable apartments, servants in G
lenty. furs, nutritious meals and the '
st of travelling arrangements. The 9
Their young women who started with Il
er on an even footing live in cheap and y
asty boarding houses, are transported 8
ON one town TO another like cattle,
nd they wait for promotion with
cry dismal premonition that, when I
yer a vacancy occurs in the upper r,
snks, it is the managers favorite who a
Ill get it and not the girl who deserves n
according 10 merit. Virtue on the a
age and in the travelling Company "
cans what you can see III the rear car. 7
be women have to carry their own y
ggage, pay their own bills and fight q
ie thousand extortio1ate demands that o
e met with at every turn in travelling. OF